


Growing

by lipsstainedbloodred



Category: All For The Game - Nora Sakavic
Genre: Future Fic, Multi, aaron learns to grow up
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-28
Updated: 2017-10-28
Packaged: 2019-01-25 08:33:50
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,430
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12527292
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lipsstainedbloodred/pseuds/lipsstainedbloodred
Summary: Aaron's fifth year at Palmetto State is a good one, even if it's very different than anything he ever thought he'd deserve to have.





	Growing

**Author's Note:**

  * For [EvanJosten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/EvanJosten/gifts).



Aaron and Katelyn’s break up had been a mutual thing with Aaron deciding he didn’t have the time to dedicate to Katelyn between Exy and school and Katelyn deciding the same. They still met for study sessions in the library on Sundays and sometimes when the sun broke through the window and lit her hair into a crown of gold around an angelic face his heart swelled with how much he still loved her. When Katelyn brought around her new girlfriend Angela from the Vixens Aaron wanted to be jealous, he wanted to be angry at her for moving on and being happy without him, but he wasn’t. Aaron had grown in the past few years, a result of extensive therapy and Katelyn’s own soft heart and guidance. Aaron would never be fixed, but he was learning to be okay.

It felt to Aaron like he owed Katelyn the world. She had been the reason he and Andrew were forced to work through their issues, she had been the one to help him find friends within the Foxes and the Vixens, and she had been the one to ease him through his self-realization of his own sexuality. Realizing he was attracted to men as well as women had been a revelation and a half, sending him into a bout of self loathing so strong it rivaled Andrew’s. But Katelyn had been there with her easy smile and hand extended and helped pull him back to his feet.

His fifth year at Palmetto was turning out to be the best yet, despite Josten’s smart mouth that still sent his blood boiling. The new Foxes were settling in easily enough and he had put in his applications for a Med School in the North East, not too far from where Andrew had accepted an offer from a pro team, Katelyn had applied to the same school, but also had her heart set on another school located in California. The warm weather and sandy beaches would suit her, but Aaron had no desire to take up residence in California.

He’d made friends with two other boys that had applied to the same Med School, bringing them along to his slowly growing study group on Sundays, and Nicky joked that Aaron was finally growing up. Maybe he was. Maybe he and Andrew both were, if he bothered to give that more than a second thought. 

Aaron smiled, a slow and sticky thing, and ran a thumb over a page of his text book. He felt a chin dig into his shoulder and hands slide around to his front to rest on his chest. This was also a new but good thing. “What are you thinking so hard about?” Dan asked, he could hear the smile in her voice.

Aaron shrugged. “Everything,” He said, “nothing at all.”

“Are you still studying?” Matt asked from his spot on the floor. He’d been trying to get Aaron to play his new racing game with him for an hour despite Aaron’s halfhearted protests that he needed to study for his midterm.

Dan kissed the soft spot behind his ear, where a small hand tattooed flower that Katelyn had done herself lay, “Come on,” She said.

Aaron groaned in mock exasperation, “I mean, I guess I could take a break.”

“Of course you can,” Matt said, “Everyone needs breaks. Even robot doctors like you.”

“Not a doctor yet,” Aaron said.

Dan laughed a little and pulled Aaron to his feet, taking him over to the pile of pillows and blankets spread across the floor that she lovingly called their couch. Aaron settled next to Matt, ignoring the proffered controller in favor of laying down with his head pressed against Matt’s hip and his leg thrown over Matt’s. Dan settled in behind him, her arm wrapped around his stomach and face pressing into his hair.

Aaron loved their apartment. It was only a thirty minute drive from campus for Aaron and a little over an hour for Dan where she worked as a coach in Columbia. Matt’s pro team was about four hours south, but he drove in on weekends and during breaks when he could. 

Matt paused his game and nudged at Aaron to scoot over so he could lay down too and grinned when Aaron immediately shuffled up against his chest. Matt cupped Aaron’s face with his cheek and kissed him briefly on the nose, watching Aaron scrunch his nose up. “We said take a break and you immediately settle in for a nap,” Matt teased.

“Naps are breaks,” Aaron said.

“Naps are absolutely breaks,” Dan agreed, “just because Matt is one of those weirdos that doesn’t take naps doesn’t make that untrue.”

“No one over the age of six takes naps,” Matt argued.

It was a familiar argument, completely playful in nature and Aaron let the sound of Dan listing the health benefits of taking naps become background noise. He breathed in the smell of Matt’s laundry detergent on his shirt and the soft smell of his lotion as he buried his face into Matt’s neck.

“I don’t deserve you,” Aaron murmured suddenly, his heart too full for his chest and near to bursting. He was a messy, rotten thing and sometimes in too soft moments such as this he wondered if he were just dreaming.

Dan’s voice broke off suddenly and Matt’s hand cupped the back of his head. Matt made a small noise, a sad one that hurt Aaron to hear, and stroked a thumb over the back of Aaron’s neck. “Oh honey,” He said softly, “It’s not about what you do or don’t deserve, it’s about the fact that we love you anyway.”

Dan’s hand came up and rubbed soothing circles around his ribs, making Aaron’s breath hitch. “And never think for one second that we don’t love you, because we do Aaron, more and more each day.”

Aaron clenched his jaw and clung to Matt’s shirt, taking steadying breaths through his nose. Their love bowled him over and left him breathless and shaken, it was almost too much. “I love you too,” Aaron mumbled.

Matt leaned down and kissed a line across the side of Aaron’s face, “We know. You’re so good at letting us know.”

“You’re so good Aaron,” Dan said gently, pressing her lips to the base of his neck.

Aaron shivered and slowly relaxed between them until he pulled his head from Matt’s neck to kiss him. Matt hummed softly into the kiss, holding Aaron close, before letting Dan turn Aaron’s head so she could kiss him as well.

“We need popcorn,” Dan declared, punctuating the statement with another short but firm kiss to Aaron’s mouth.

“And I’ll put on a movie,” Matt said, picking up his controller with one hand to exit back to the dashboard so he could put on a movie.

“Short break,” Aaron reminded them.

“You’ve been studying for hours,” Matt said, “One movie.”

Aaron sighed and Dan laughed, kissing his shoulder, “I’ll make the popcorn and grab some M&Ms. And I swear to god Matt if you put on another one of those shitty romcoms I’m divorcing you.” She wiggled herself away from Aaron and stood to walk the short distance to the kitchen.

“We’re not even married,” Matt protested.

“Then we’ll have to get married so I can divorce you,” Dan said over her shoulder.

A laugh bubbled up past Aaron’s lips and he couldn’t contain it. He covered his mouth with his hand, laughing far too much at a joke that honestly shouldn’t have been so funny but he couldn’t help himself. Matt and Dan were so good to him, so good at dismantling his fears and putting him back on solid ground when he felt like he was floating.

Matt leaned up to put in a movie, an action thriller this time, and laid back down to pull Aaron back against his chest. Matt kissed Aaron’s laughing mouth until he quieted and then some more. Aaron thought about how far he’d come, about how Minyard’s were not supposed to get higher than the gutter and yet here he was with two of the best people he’d ever known beside him. 

Dan came back into the room with a bowl of popcorn and a bag of M&Ms that Aaron knew Matt would immediately dump into the bowl despite Dan’s disgust. She settled the bowl on the ground in front of them and sat down, brushing Aaron’s bangs back from his forehead. “You good?” She asked him.

“Yeah,” Aaron said, “I’m good.”


End file.
